How to Use useless in a Sentence
useless
adjective- I made a useless attempt at fixing the leak.
- The tent is useless in wet conditions.
- Drugs are useless in treating the condition.
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That means your stash of its 20%-off coupons are about to be useless.
— Parija Kavilanz, CNN, 23 Apr. 2023 -
This doesn’t mean that the pieties are empty or useless.
— Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 11 Dec. 2023 -
Choosing the wrong test may be useless, and a waste of time and money.
— Brandon Peters, Verywell Health, 21 Mar. 2024 -
Also, when—not if—the battery on the phone dies, the compass is useless.
— Craig Caudill, Field & Stream, 29 June 2023 -
The main sail was then rendered useless, causing the men to be set adrift in 20-foot-plus seas.
— Bill Hutchinson, ABC News, 5 Aug. 2024 -
The best footwear in the world is useless when paired with the little cotton socks that fill most kids’ drawers.
— Joe Jackson, Outside Online, 18 Oct. 2022 -
But the truth was that already by the birth of their daughter he had been rendered useless.
— Nicole Krauss, The New Yorker, 26 Sep. 2022 -
The sky was a churning, cold tempest; my glasses useless in the hazy mist.
— Joseph Hernandez, Chicago Tribune, 15 Mar. 2023 -
Even the best passers in the league are useless without teammates knocking down shots.
— C.j. Holmes, San Francisco Chronicle, 7 Feb. 2023 -
The police and public might be useless here, but Mia won’t give up.
— Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 21 July 2024 -
The defensive game plans the staff built for Army and Purdue will be useless this week.
— Jeff Potrykus, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 26 Oct. 2021 -
With his left ankle rendered useless, Jones hopped off the field on his right foot.
— Dan Shaughnessy, BostonGlobe.com, 25 Sep. 2022 -
Of course, the truth is that rather than being a useless relic, the core work of the humanities is the cure for what ails us.
— Jim Miller, San Diego Union-Tribune, 28 Dec. 2023 -
Without a briefcase though — the one Five and Lila hotwired to get to the Commission is now useless — that's a no-go.
— Maggie Fremont, EW.com, 22 June 2022 -
The bulk of Earth’s water, about 97%, is in salty oceans and thus useless for drinking or growing food.
— Mark Gongloff, Twin Cities, 6 Feb. 2024 -
Tomatoes will grow in plastic, clay, and stone pots, but a pot that lacks drainage holes is useless.
— Megan Hughes, Better Homes & Gardens, 28 May 2024 -
If a weed killer is like a key and its target like a lock, a change of the locks can render the herbicide useless.
— New York Times, 11 Aug. 2021 -
But most of the government’s DIY advice on how to adapt had so far proven useless.
— Rick Noack, Washington Post, 13 July 2024 -
In such cases, a weapon detector at the front door is useless.
— Hiawatha Bray, BostonGlobe.com, 11 July 2023 -
However, some people feel the need to raise their arms too high, which is plain wrong and useless.
— Jeff Tomko, Men's Health, 1 Sep. 2022 -
Just like that, the weapon that made Thor complete was destroyed and rendered useless.
— Chris Smith, BGR, 24 May 2022 -
So an arms control treaty that left out one of the three major powers would be all but useless.
— David E. Sanger, New York Times, 21 Feb. 2023 -
At one point, Gideon rips the Darksaber out of Bo-Katan's hand, crushing it in his fist and rendering the weapon useless.
— Devan Coggan, EW.com, 19 Apr. 2023 -
In fact, doing so could cause bugs that would render your phone useless.
— Maren Estrada, BGR, 16 July 2021 -
That definition is so broad and so vague as to be useless.
— Katha Pollitt, The Atlantic, 25 Mar. 2024 -
Nothing’s worse than flicking over to airplane mode and finding your phone is suddenly useless.
— David Pierce, WIRED, 23 Nov. 2024 -
That shiny stuff—like dollar bills, numbers on a blockchain ledger, and most other forms of currency—is, in a strictly practical sense, pretty much useless.
— Greg McKenna, Fortune, 21 Nov. 2024
Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'useless.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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